On advertising

'Blue ocean' thinking can create waves

When Nintendo issued a profits warning last week, saying that it expected to sell 1m fewer Wiis this financial year than predicted - though 1m more DS consoles - analysts were surprised. The popularity of family-focused games such as Mario Kart Wii had led some to believe that console sales would exceed expectations. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo's share price sank, dropping 12% by Friday morning, but there is a consolation of sorts to be had. Namely, that, prior to last week's announcement, Nintendo was actually being regarded as a recession-proof proposition.

For the past two years, Nintendo has been dominating Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox. But only three years ago, the company seemed so far behind that it looked as if it was going to retreat from the videogame market completely. Certainly, neither Sony nor Microsoft saw Nintendo's resurgence coming. And neither did I.

Just over three years ago, the company's marketing director, Dawn Paine, suggested that Nintendo could expand its audience to include more women and families. At the time, it seemed unlikely to work. Gaming may have moved beyond nerdy, teenage boy's bedrooms, but no brand was specifically targeting women or families. And, I thought, none should. But I was wrong.

Nintendo did something that other beleagured brands could learn from: it stopped attempting to catch up with its competitors and went after a new market. It initiated a so-called "blue ocean" strategy - the notion of creating a market where previously there wasn't one. This stemmed from the realisation that "the current waters" - the 15- to 30-year-old males traditionally targeted by the games industry - were "over-fished", and that there was a vast, untapped opportunity in the neglected female and older male segments. Not only did this strategy sound like a load of gibberish created by so many consultants, it was also a huge risk. Did this market really want games consoles? And what about Nintendo's existing customers?

The campaign began in the UK with a Brain Training ad produced by Leo Burnett and featuring Nicole Kidman, which certainly had "cut-through" and bought column inches. But Kidman is so far beyond Nintendo's target audience that I'm not convinced she really resonated with them. Certainly, in 2007, Nintendo had a public falling-out with Leo Burnett and promptly appointed the small but hungry Karmarama.

Karmarama decided to ditch Hollywood A-listers but stick with celebrities. By bringing in Zoë Ball and her dad, Johnny, the Redknapps, Girls Aloud and Fern Britton, the Nintendo DS and Wii seem a lot more accessible. The ads may be dull as ditchwater but they have also - current news excepted - worked. I now think that the Redknapps are a pretty run-of-the-mill family. I also think their Wii brings them closer together - an extraordinary achievement given gaming's previously antisocial image.

Crucially, Nintendo has maintained its core gaming audience, while turning a couch-potato pastime into a full work-out. Sony and Microsoft are now, unsurprisingly, also on the case. Microsoft launched a pre-Christmas campaign aimed at making its Xbox appear more family-orientated, along with the introduction of Lips, a karaoke game for up to four people with appeal across all age groups and both sexes.

But the funny thing about all of this is that there is not anything particularly special about the Wii. Compared with the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 it has pretty standard functionality, which means that no amount of ads shouting about clever technology or controllers for the PlayStation and Xbox is going to lure away Nintendo's new audience.

This leaves Sony and Microsoft in a difficult position. Over the years, TBWA has created some beautiful and creative advertising for PlayStation (although now that its other client Apple is moving more into the gaming market, it may be forced to choose between brands), but these ads don't give anyone but traditional gamers a reason to buy. If PlayStation wants to expand its audience it is going to have to rethink its entire marketing strategy, not just commission more sexy ads.

Horror movie hopes to drive message home

Last week I saw a new ad for the Department for Transport's Think! road-safety campaign. At first I thought that I had been sent a clip from a horror movie, it was so scary - and the ad will certainly generate a bit of commotion when it airs tonight. You can see it first on mediaguardian.co.uk today. Instead of reinforcing the 30mph message, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO has moved the campaign on to focusing on what it would be like to kill a child.

The ad depicts a man who is constantly followed around by the mangled body of the child he killed, and the tagline is "Kill your speed, or live with it". It's gruesome and frightening but, with more than 700 deaths on the road from speeding drivers each year, DfT presumably feels it needs to shock.

Bob's so co-operative

The Co-operative Group is claiming something of a coup, having got permission from Bob Dylan to use Blowin' in the Wind for its forthcoming television advertising campaign. It has also been put about that the former protest singer agreed to his most precious song being used because he admired the Co-op's "ethical and fair trade" stance.

Congratulations to the Co-op and all that - but it's not such a great accomplishment, as Dylan and advertising have lately become firm friends. He has appeared in an ad in the US for the lingerie brand Victoria's Secret, also allowing his song Love Sick to be used as the soundtrack - and recently starred in a campaign for the gas-guzzling Cadillac Escalade SUV. I wonder which one of Cadillac's particular ethical stances tempted Dylan.